Striking Dawn Castle guards the mountains between the Emerald empire and the demon-haunted Shadowlands. When a mythical city is discovered in the forbidding peaks, Hida Haru, heir and sore disappointment to his family, seizes the opportunity to prove himself. His rash expedition end in disaster--just one samurai returns alive, and Haru is lost. Before a power struggle can break out, Striking Dawn's battle-hardened commander, Ochiba, is dispatched to rescue Haru. Despite supernatural horrors, she succeeds, but Haru is...changed. Now, mysterious deaths and ill fortune plague his family. Something evil is loose and must be stopped, at any cost.